Chapter 144 Chapter 144
Violet
"'Okay," I mumbled. The phone slipped from my fingers, clattering onto the velvet seat beside me. I stared at it for a moment, trying to remember why I'd been holding it.
"I'm going to the bathroom," Cassie announced suddenly, though I wasn't sure if she was talking to me or the group in general.
I nodded vaguely, watching her weave through the crowd. And then had a few more drinks along with the girls who were too busy gawking at the men to pay any attention to me.
I looked around but Cassie wasn’t in her seat. She'd been gone for a while now, hadn't she? Or maybe it had only been a minute. Time was getting slippery.
The dancer on stage was doing something complicated with his hips, and Madison was screaming like he’d just asked her out. >Veronica was trying to get his attention, waving more bills.
I laughed but then my stomach hurt. Maybe, I needed to splash some cold water on my face. And I definitely needed to pee.
The thought took a moment to translate into action, but eventually I managed to get my feet under me and stand. The world tilted dramatically to the left, and I grabbed the edge of the booth to steady myself.
Find the bathroom.
I was starting to see four of everyone as I stumbled forward. Faces blurred together, the music was too loud, and my head felt like somebody was hammering it. I put one foot in front of the other, aiming for where I thought I'd seen bathroom signs earlier.
I barely managed to get out of the velvety room when I thought I heard someone calling my name.
"Violet?"
Was Elijah already here? Hope soared in me and I turned too fast as everything spun around me like a carnival ride.
But then I saw an unwanted face staring back at me. I found Nate standing there. What was he doing here?
"Nate?" I frowned, trying to focus on his face through the haze. "S'your... Nicole's bachelorette party. You're not s'posed to be here."
"Are you okay?" He reached for my arm. "You look like you need to sit down."
"I need… bathroom," I mumbled, trying to pull away. My arm didn't seem to want to cooperate. "You should go. Go be with Nicole. Your... your fiancée. Remember her?"
Something flickered across his face, an expression I couldn't quite read in my current state. "Let me just help you to the bathroom. You can barely stand."
"M'fine." I tried to pull away again, but my coordination was completely shot. The room kept tilting, and his hand on my arm was the only thing keeping me upright.
"You're not fine." His other hand came to my waist, pulling me closer. We were close enough that I could smell his cologne, feel his breath on my face. "You know, I never realized how beautiful you were until yesterday."
Despite my drunken state, I looked up at him in confusion.
“What?”
He smiled, reaching for a strand of my hair and tucking it behind my ear.
“You are beautiful, Violet. And sexy. And so damn hot.”
Warning bells went off somewhere in the back of my mind, cutting through the alcoholic fog. This was wrong.
"Nate, let go," I said, trying to inject some firmness into my voice and failing.
"You were never this daring with me," he continued, his voice dropping lower, as he brought his mouth near my ear to whisper in a more intimate way. "You were always buried in work and barely showed your crazy side to me. But yesterday, I saw it all. You were on fire but you never let me see you like that before. But you do it for Elijah, don't you?"
I tried to shove him away but he held onto my arms with a firm grip.
"The vibrator," he murmured, his hand sliding from my waist to my lower back, pressing me against him. "That was from me to you. You know that, right? I picked it out specifically, imagining you using it. And then watching him use it on you... Goddess, Violet. Watching you come apart like that, hearing you moan... do you have any idea how fucking hot that was?"
Horror crashed through me, momentarily clearing some of the fog. "Get away from me!"
"Come on, baby." His hand was moving now, sliding lower. "Don't play innocent now. You wanted this. You've always wanted this. You said I never gave you my attention but here I am now. And I know you want me too. Why else would you let me watch?"
"I didn't…I never…" Panic was sobering me up fast, adrenaline cutting through the alcohol. "Nate, stop. I mean it."
But he wasn't stopping. He was backing me against the wall, using his body to cage me in, his knee pressing between my legs. When I tried to push at his chest, he grabbed my wrist, pinning it against the wall above my head.
"Don't be a fucking tease," he growled, and this wasn't the Nate I'd known before. This was someone else, someone darker. "You're going to give me what you gave him. What you should have given me years ago."
"NO!" I twisted, trying to bring my knee up to his groin, but he blocked it, pressing his full weight against me.
“You were mine first. And I know deep down you are trying to make me jealous while pretending to hook up with that geezer.”
“Leave me alone!”
"Stop fighting," he hissed. "You know you want this. You've always wanted this. You hated when I chose Nicole over you, right? So here I am choosing you. Let me get a taste."
"Get OFF!" I screamed, thrashing against him.
His hand clamped over my mouth. "Shut up and open your mouth to kiss…"
"VIOLET!"
The roar cut through the music like a gunshot, like thunder, like the wrath of God himself.
Nate's head whipped around, his eyes going wide, and then he was being ripped away from me with such force that I heard fabric tear. He went flying backward, hitting the opposite wall with a sickening thud.
Elijah stood there, his face contorted in raw fury. I had never seen him like this.
His eyes were glowing with hatred and wrath, pitch black eyes that seemed devoid of any reasoning or rationale. His face was a mask of pure, primal rage that made my blood run cold even as relief flooded through me.
"I warned you," Elijah said, his voice deadly calm in a way that was more terrifying than if he'd been shouting. Each word was vibrating with barely leashed violence. "I fucking told you to stay away from her."
"Elijah, man, this isn't what it looks like.." Nate started scrambling to his feet, hands raised in surrender.
He didn't get to finish.